China army promotes Mao Zedong grandson to general

BEIJING 
Mao Zedong's only grandson has become the youngest general in the People's Liberation Army at age 39, a Chinese newspaper said Thursday.

Military historian Mao Xinyu is the son of Mao's second son Mao Anqing, who died in 2007 at the age of 84. The younger Mao is a member of the main advisory body to the country's rubber stamp parliament and a fierce defender of his grandfather's legacy.

The state-run Changjiang Daily reported that the promotion came "recently" and said the move made Mao Xinyu the first PLA general born in the 1970s.

Known around the world as Chairman Mao, Mao Zedong led the bloody two decade-long revolution that overthrew Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists and established the People's Republic of China in 1949. Mao retained an iron grip on power right up to his death in 1977, and his embalmed body continues to lie in state in a mausoleum on Tiananmen Square in the heart of the capital, Beijing.

Mao Zedong had a notoriously chaotic personal life, marrying four times and siring nine children, including a daughter by his last wife, Jiang Qing. His second wife, Mao Xinyu's grandmother, was executed by the Nationalists in 1930.

While Mao Zedong remains venerated in China, his offspring have played little role in affairs of state. First son Mao Anying was killed in action during the Korean War and Mao Anqing is believed to have suffered from mental illness for most of his adult life.

In recent years, Mao Xinyu has become best known for his considerable girth, and a photo of him taken on this year's Sept. 9 commemoration of Mao Zedong's death shows him bearing a strong resemblence to his famously pudgy grandfather.